By Omocho Kalu
The Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has declared solidarity for the decision of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to embark on a two-day national protest.
This is to add pressure on the federal government to show genuine concern and get Nigerian students back to school.
The two-day strike is billed to hold tomorrow, Tuesday, July 26 and Wednesday 27.
Also the group identified with the unions in Nigeria’s public universities that are fighting for quality education.
CAPPA in a statement issued in Lagos, made available to Newsmark and signed by Zikora Ibeh, Policy and Research Officer, explained that the decision by the organized labour to embark on solidarity protest was the best line of action given the Federal Government’s lack of seriousness in the past five months of the strike despite efforts by the NLC and other stakeholders to intervene in the lockjam.
The statement reads in part “CAPPA welcomes the NLC’s decision and urges all civil-society organizations, student unions, including the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), and all groups committed to the defense of social, economic, and human rights to join organized labour and education unions to defend the public university system.
“CAPPA is in support of every legitimate action to ensure a speedy resolution of the strike and resumption of classes by students who have been idling away at home for five months.
“It is disheartening that the ASUU strike, which started on February 14, 2022, is now in its fifth month. This, coupled with several months lost during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 means that Nigerian students have cumulatively lost more than a year of academic work over a period of just two years.
“The long-term consequences of this loss for students and society can only be imagined. Unfortunately, the Federal Government does not seem bothered. Therefore the national protest of 26 and 27 July MUST become a crucial point of engagement to demand accountability from political office holders and to insist on the right of the Nigeria child to improved funding of education as enshrined in the articles of the 1999 constitution (as amended) as well as several international agreements to which Nigeria is a signatory.”
CAPPA lamented that Nigeria’s public universities had been severely underfunded and bedeviled by a poor governance system that promoted mismanagement and misappropriation of the paltry funding available, noting, “No doubt, this is one of the reasons, according to the World University Ranking 2022 report, no public university in Nigeria is in the first 100 in Africa or the first 1000 in the world.”
CAPPA noted further that Nigerian academics were some of the least-paid in the world despite having highly rated knowledge and qualifications comparable to any of their peers anywhere in the world.
It stressed further that any government that placed value on education would ensure that the welfare of its academics and the funding of its schools were given priority in its budgeting and resource-mobilization processes.
According to CAPPA ” We hereby urge Nigerian people to continue to support academic and non-academic staff in public universities to demand improved funding for the university system and appropriate wages and allowances commensurate with their skills and services.
“This is the only way to block the curse of brain drain that plagues Nigeria and restore the integrity of the country’s university system,”.
Recall that the NLC National Executive Council (NEC) had notified its affiliates and state councils after its meeting on June 30, 2022 that the protests were to hold on Tuesday July 26 and Wednesday July 27, 2022, in all the state capitals across the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
